Support NeoGAF

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

That seems like a reasonable scenario. The whole Western multiplayer focus thing might have just killed Platinum. XBL subs are everything.

 

[SparksterMeta0]

Nice concept, but not surprised at the outcome.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

I think most publisher just want something good but look back to the demo, seems Scalebound is not the case.

And here lies the problem: forcing developers to have a demo ready for the game while they're making the actual game. Demos should not be shown or released or forced upon developers if the game is not ready. Things take time.

 

[Santiako]

Oh that sucks, the game looked great.

 

[TharpDaddy]

It's over, period. MS lost their last ace, and that's the end of their Xbox One hopes and dreams.

It's not hyperbole, it's not fanboy drivel. It is LITERALLY it for Xbox. MS has nothing left, nothing they can reveal tomorrow would fix the hole now created. There is no reason left for any one, hardcore or casual, to substantively invest in an Xbox. Except if they want to play INSIDE which will also come to PS4 at some point.

Microsoft took away the last reason that anyone would need to own an Xbox over a PS4 (except for 4K Blu-Ray playing LOL!) and the cavalcade of tiny titles that will be nice but won't stir up any sales.

There may be some diehard fanboys that stick around.

This is Microsoft's Wii U. There may be some diehard fanboys that stick around but the bell has tolled, the age of Xbox is done.

Good shit, made me laugh 👌

 

[Balb]

Have there been any successful third party/Microsoft partnerships this generation? I guess Ryse?

 

[Hoo-doo]

So what is the appeal of Scorpio? 3rd Parties? Whats the point of having power if you got no games to showcase it. This is why Scorpio will do absolutely nothing to Sony and will be nothing more than an overhyped console with no games.

Yeah, they have a core gaming division to patch up first. Situation is getting kind of crazy.

 

[Always-honest]

Ah.. that's a shame.

 

[Fat4all]

I was wondering, has it been confirmed that Kamiya is taking a break for "mental health issues?"

I don't see that confirmed anywhere, but maybe I'm just missing it.

 

[StarBlazers1]

Let's discuss ms 2017 line up tho

*crickets*

You mean
Halo Wars 2
Sea of Thieves
State of Decay 2
Cuphead
Crackdown 3
New Forza Motorsport

E3 is still coming as well as Scorpio and more BC. I'm OK with it, thank you.

I have a PS4 and I will buy a Switch. Play games, be happy

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

It's interesting. Sooooo many posted Scalebound (myself included) in the "Predict the bombs of 2017".

While I had hopes for it, it didn't show very well. Which is unfortunate because it may have been great to actually play.

 

[Dinky Dino]

Anyone else expecting phil to step down soon?

There's only so much pr he can do before its ineffective and they need a new face.

 

[Duxxy3]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

Seems about right to me.

 

[Boke1879]

So what is the appeal of Scorpio? 3rd Parties? Whats the point of having power if you got no games to showcase it. This is why Scorpio will do absolutely nothing to Sony and will be nothing more than an overhyped console with no games.

Scorpio is just going to be what the Pro is. A more powerful machine to get a bit more out of games. That's it. People expecting it usher in a new gen or get exclusive content were just kidding themselves.

 

[louiedog]

Get ready for Halo/Forza cross over.

That was fast.

 

[Zedark]

Can MS make at least one new successful and well developed new IP this generation? The only one I really enjoyed was Sunset Overdrive but that is owned by Insomniac, everything else like Ryse or Quantum Break are meh to okay and we have been waiting for this project for years.

Should we be cautious about sea of thieves as well?

Sea of Thieves was very well received at its unveiling, so that is the one game that I feel confident will have no issue getting there.

 

[2San]

This is a lot for one publisher in two and a half years

Sony had the same problem for a while, though in 2016 somehow FF15 and TLG got released (on the wrong console).

 

[bwakh]

There is alot of shit posting regarding this topic and it should be quite clear by now that Don Mattrick was terrible for the Xbox brand in the long run.

lmao. Still cracks me up.

 

[Guymelef]

Hmmmm, now that the game is officially cancelled, the Scalebound page at Xbox website which was once gone is working again
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/scalebound

Thefuck you doing Microsoft

It redirects me to Japanese website.
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/

 

[bananafactory]

Have there been any successful third party/Microsoft partnerships this generation? I guess Ryse?

Ryse, and maybe Dead Rising 3?

 

[DopeyFish]

To be fair we saw more of it and more recently than Crackdown 3.

If anything we only saw a concept of the amazing cloud some years ago.

Crackdown 3 is on the same level like Phantom Dust for me right now.

As long they dont show shit and give us a real release date it doesnt exist in my mind.

Crackdown has at least a few things going for it

it's story portion is minimal.

it's a sandbox game.

The quality of that game is going to come down to engineering.

I have faith in that title releasing because it's easier to remove scope if they had to.

 

[ShirAhava]

Remember kids when bad games get canceled that's a good thing.

 

[Codeblue]

Hope someone picks up the pieces. Game might have looked rough, but I'm willing to give Kamiya the benefit of the doubt given his track record.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

Kamiya is taking time off due to mental issues and everyone's most thought provoking response is "thanks Spencer" or "rip Microsoft lol"

The thread was initially about Scalebound being cancelled. After a while, a tweet was posted about Kamiya's health. Some people responded (for a few pages) wishing him well. Now the discussion is back on the cancellation of the project and Microsoft's lineup for 2017.

 

[Frodo]

Well fuck...

Edit: wishing Kamiya recovers and gets well soon.

 

[thsantos]

There goes my reason to buy a Xbox one. Damn, I was really looking forward to it

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

Many of the games announced at E3 get cancelled or just go away. Its pretty common.

Did you look at what you quoted fam? That's most of the game announced at the conference. That ain't common or normal.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

Phantom Dust, Fable Legends, Black Tusk's new ip, and now Scalebound. It's one thing if you have a ton of studios to pick up the slack but Microsoft certainly doesn't. Well, at least there is a Halo and Forza game every year.

 

[KazenY2J]

I forgot Phantom Dust was a thing

 

[Team Andromeda]

Platinum is able to work just fine with companies like:
Square Enix
Nintendo
Konami
Activision
Sega

So I don't think the problem is Platinum at all. It is clearly Microsoft.

SEGA couldn't wait to drop its contract with Platinum games truth be told , its cost SEGA a fortune was for pretty lame sales and I doubt Activsion will want to use the group again.

Overrated corp , much like their games. SONY were wise to use FromSoftware and stay clear of Platinum games. If ONLY MS have funded From to make O.TO.GI III and also pay for From and SEGA to work on Chromhounds II

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I was wondering, has it been confirmed that Kamiya is taking a break for "mental health issues?"

I don't see that confirmed anywhere, but maybe I'm just missing it.

That's stuff that some insiders have mentioned (I think shinobi did in this thread). It's worth noting he hasn't tweeted at all since the end of the year. I hope he's all right. Shit like this must be devastating. I don't think he's ever had a publicly-announced, cancelled game before.

Yeah, this is getting pretty out-of-hand. Something is seriously wrong.

 

[Boke1879]

Anyone else expecting phil to step down soon?

There's only so much pr he can do before its ineffective and they need a new face.

He won't step down and he shouldn't. There isn't much MS can honestly do. They just don't have the leverage like they did last gen.

 

[BitStyle]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

Damn, that would suck if true. Merely speculation at this point though

 

[Floex]

Have there been any successful third party/Microsoft partnerships this generation? I guess Ryse?

What? No way can you considering Ruse a success.

 

[Rymuth]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

Re-examining his appearance on-stage, he looked so listless, beaten, lacking his usual energy.

It's chilling to think we were watching his depression unfolding before us

 

[Rush_Khan]

Maybe Platinum shouldn't have taken up so many projects at once that they couldn't handle???

 

[D4Danger]

Anyone else expecting phil to step down soon?

There's only so much pr he can do before its ineffective and they need a new face.

because of this? lol no.

 

[Maximilian Kolbe]

And here lies the problem: forcing developers to have a demo ready for the game while they're making the actual game. Demos should not be shown or released or forced upon developers if the game is not ready. Things take time.

Is 4 years of develop time really "forcing" at all?

 

[HeelPower]

Open world/Forced multiplayer are the bane of so many devs,especially JP devs.

Its amazing that FROM SOFT has been able to consistently put out these games.

The only JP dev who has their shit figured out.

 

[Fat4all]

It's interesting. Sooooo many posted Scalebound (myself included) in the "Predict the bombs of 2017".

While I had hopes for it, it didn't show very well. Which is unfortunate because it may have been great to actually play.

You don't hire Platinum if you want massive sales, you hire Platinum for vanity projects, for a feather in your cap.

They can attract a niche that other games can't.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

Good speculation. Quite possible.

 

[ohdearohdear]

WTF? This looks like it's mostly Platinum.

You clearly have accesss to more information than us, mind sharing? platinum has been able to work well with plenty of other publishers sooo

Platinum will be closed in a few years if they keep up with the mediocrity.

good thing nier is looking pretty great then!

 

[Creaking]

How many exclusives has Microsoft cancelled now? Probably not that many, but it feels like a lot. Phantom Dust, Fable Legends, now Scalebound, and other games that feel stuck in development hell, like Crackdown 3. Rough going, gotta say.

 

[Rad-]

So what is the appeal of Scorpio? 3rd Parties? Whats the point of having power if you got no games to showcase it. This is why Scorpio will do absolutely nothing to Sony and will be nothing more than an overhyped console with no games.

You underestimate the importance of having the best 3rd party titles. That's the reason I bought my PS4 over XO.

 

[oti]

Many of the games announced at E3 get cancelled or just go away. Its pretty common.

MS cancelled two of its key titles.

Trust in a brand is the most important thing a company has to build up over years and years. This debacle is terrible for the Xbox brand and any game announcement outside of Halo and Gears will be accompanied by doubt from now on.

It's a bad situation.

 

[D i Z]

Damn it Jeff, you gave them the strategy to cancel games instead of just ship them broken

....Good.
Thank you, Jeff????

 

[FelipeMGM]

It redirects me to Japanese website.
http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/

I swear to god it was working 5 minutes ago

 

[Effect]

Ah, here's what I was looking for

July 2015: "Those shits at MS...are they fucking with me?"

So, let's set a timeline HEAVY with speculation. Game was announced at E3 2014 without much notice. It skipped E3 2015, but showed up at Gamescom that year in August with an announcement of four-player co-op, which was shown off with a much rougher game in E3 2016's conference. The game was then cancelled soon after.

My guess is that, in July, Kamiya was told he had to rejigger the game into a four-player co-op thing. There were never any hints he wanted to make the game a Monster Hunter-like, but I am guessing people in charge of money were expecting him to do so. It gets announced, shown off, and the response is tepid. Changing tides at Microsoft, a desire to free up the UE4 team they put together to work with Kamiya, and being unhappy with the state of the game lead to it being cancelled.

If my guess is correct, that's really sad.

That seems like a reasonable scenario. The whole Western multiplayer focus thing might have just killed Platinum. XBL subs are everything.

Considering the multiplayer focus of Halo 5, Forza, Crackdown, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War it makes sense that Microsoft would have wanted Scalebound to follow the same pattern. It was clear that wasn't what the game was when it was announced. Look at what they did to Fable as well with Fable Legends as another example. What made Scalebound stand out at the time, at least for me, is that it wasn't another mulitplayer or co-op focused game.

 

[sammyCYBORG]

It always looked awful.

MS have a dire situation in regards to exclusives. They desperately need to fix that.

 

[Art Vandilay]

lmao. Still cracks me up.